Stock Market & Financial Investment News

Bank of America July volatility flat on tight three-month price rangeBank of America August call option implied volatility is at 24, September is at 26 and January is at 25; compared to its 26-week average of 24 according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional near term price movement.

Overstock.com market-riggin case to proceed Overstock.com (OSTK) announces that due to the California Supreme Court's decision last week not to review a lower appellate court ruling, relevant discovery materials gained in its long-fought battle with Goldman Sachs (GS) and Merrill Lynch (BAC) will be released to the public, and it will be proceeding to trial against Merrill Lynch. In a suit filed in 2007, Overstock.com alleged certain brokerages engaged in illegal market manipulation in a deliberate effort to manipulate Overstock.com's share prices. Over many years and millions of dollars of discovery generating millions of documents, it fashioned its case against some of the premier brokerages on Wall Street. As was previously disclosed in a filing with the SEC in December 2010, Overstock.com entered into a settlement with certain other defendants in the aggregate amount of $4.44M, the terms of which are confidential. In January 2012, a California trial court decided that relevant portions of the voluminous discovery records regarding Goldman and Merrill should be made public, but dismissed the case on narrow, technical grounds. Last week's decision by the California Supreme Court not to review the appellate court ruling means that the process for public release of information gathered through the discovery process may now proceed, and also the trial against Merrill Lynch. Overstock SVP and General Counsel Mark Griffin added, "It is unfortunate the Court has decided that, despite the substantial evidence against Goldman Sachs, due to jurisdictional grounds they cannot be made to account for it in a California courtroom. Overstock looks forward to making that evidence available to the public for review, and we can't wait to get Merrill Lynch in front of a jury, and let them decide what to do about these manipulative stock market abuses."

Bank of America downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBSUBS analyst Brennan Hawken downgraded Bank of America to Neutral from Buy saying disclosures in the bank's recent annual filing raise the risk of a qualitative failure this year. Hawken believes that even with yesterday's 2.7% pullback, shares of Bank of America are not fully pricing in the risk of a qualified failure in the Federal Reserve's Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review, or CCAR. The analyst writes that even if BofA passes the CCAR, the Fed's annual exercise to assess whether the largest banks have sufficient capital, its regulatory capital ratios are well below peers, which could drive lower capital returns. Hawken cut his price target on the banking giant to $16 from $20. Shares of Bank of America closed yesterday down 45c to $16.04.

Fed extends capital surcharge for SiFi banks comment period to April 3The Federal Reserve extended until April 3 the comment period for its proposed rule to implement capital surcharges for the largest, most systemically important U.S. bank holding companies. The Fed extended the comment period to allow interested persons more time to analyze the issues and prepare their comments. Originally, comments were due by March 2. The proposed rule would establish a methodology to identify whether a firm is a global systemically important banking organization and would also establish the size of a firm's risk-based capital surcharge. The proposal is designed to further strengthen the capital positions of these institutions. Large U.S. banks include Bank of America (BAC), Citi (C), Goldman Sachs (GS), JPMorgan (JPM), Morgan Stanley (MS), U.S. Bancorp (USB) and Wells Fargo (WFC).

Barclays to double provision for forex rigging fines, Sky News saysBarclays (BCS), which previously excluded itself from a broader settlement between several banking peers and regulators over alleged manipulation of foreign exchange rates as it worked to secure a binding agreement with all relevant authorities, will more than double its existing provision for forex fines next week, which may indicate that a settlement deal could be announced soon, said Sky News. Barclay took a GBP500M charge during the course of last year in advance of expected forex issue costs, the report noted. Other banks that previously agreed to a settlement included Bank of America (BAC), Citibank (C), HSBC (HSBC), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), RBS (RBS) and UBS (UBS). The report indicates that U.S. regulators have stepped up talks with banks including Barclays and the others involved. Reference Link